by Eva Priest
I could almost see the other man shrug. Dorn easily believed that I had found my mate. No need for explanations. Just quick and easy in his logical way.
He continued. “The fact that you have lost all common sense and reason, snarling worse than a karzandar wolf over his bone has also confirmed it.”
I huffed. I wasn’t snarling. Definitely not anything like a karzandar wolf. They were possessive and guarded what was theirs jealously. It could be anything from food to territory to a pile of sticks for crying out loud.
I wasn’t that bad. I just wanted to kill anyone who touched and looked at Solana. That was perfectly reasonable. Honorable, even.
“Whatever. Look, I’m uploading some chatter that I was able to record from the poachers. It’s got some strange intel, namely something about a pandora strain. Seems important.” I waited until the data transfer was complete.
Tal whistled. “A quick scan through the data tells me you stumbled into something big, boss. Like Legion command big.”
“Yeah, it seems like it.”
“What the hell is a low-rung hustler like Praxis got to do with any of this?”
That was exactly the sort of thing that I wanted to find out myself. What did a smuggler have to do with these whack jobs doing science experiments? And how come he and his crew were nowhere to be found? “That’s exactly what I want to know as well. Get into slipstream. Cade out.” I tapped my comms. The static of the line died down in my ear.
Knowing that my team would be here soon with cooler heads, I would be able to give in to the primal urge to protect my mate. She was first, always.
Perhaps she would like to watch as I killed the poachers. That could be the first of many bonding-gifts I could present to her.
Resolved, I advanced my position. Solana had revealed a few surprises about this vessel when she shared unity with me. She was very observant, my mate. Already the bonding proved useful.
I hoisted myself down from the many catwalks. Smuggler’s ships tended to have lots of little hidey-holes. But, there was a reason why the Legion assigned Rodinians to the Reaper units. No matter the distance, we could sniff out and find our prey.
The poachers had been very, very busy, getting a lot of rare and dangerous species. Would have gotten them a huge pile of cash for sure, if I didn’t intend on redecorating the ship with their internal organs.
Once Solana was safe, I would be able to indulge these thoughts.
Though my battle form still remained, it had since receded to a manageable size while I crawled around the bowels of the ship, making the killing edge bearable. It still skated beneath the surface, but I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to punch holes through the ship’s outer hull.
I kept an ear out as I passed several cages. Most of the contents were filled to the brim with rare plant species. There was one containment area that had an entire lagoon-looking set up, including trees, rocks, and mini-waterfall. How was that even possible?
There were a few bird habitats and holding area for small primates, and then not much else. Several cargo bays and container holds were empty.
Odd. Wouldn’t the crew want to stock up on as much as they could to make the most of their time? This is a far enough run, there was no reason to leave with this much space available.
I turned down one corridor which was lined with reinforced containment doors. Another level for storage? The rooms here were also empty save for one that had sloping metallic pods similar to the one that held Solana.
I wrenched the hatch open, and dropped inside the room next to the nearest pod. Tapping the controls illuminated what was inside. The person looked familiar. My files matched that face to one of the enforcers assigned to this ship.
Was this a punishment of sorts?
The next pod revealed a similar fate, with a crew member sleeping peacefully within the paralytic gel.
The third pod contained an all-too familiar face. It had been floating in my retinal files for damn near a week. Shock of flaming orange hair. Grayish skin. And if he opened his eyes, I would bet they would be a screaming yellow.
Silar Praxis.
The deadly rage that had fogged my head cleared upon seeing him. If he was asleep in this pod, then who was running this ship? And who had taken Solana?
A few keystrokes on the pod’s control panel, and Silar Praxis sloshed out of the pod in a wave of goo. No telling how long he had been in suspension or how long it would take him to snap out of it.
I rolled him onto his side, intending to hoist him up onto a table when he started to moan. Those yellow eyes opened in shock, before he violently sputtered and gasped. The man coughed out a plug of mucus, and very nearly a lung.
I pounded on his back, not entirely sure I was helping him. When he focused on me, his eyes widened and hope filled his face. “You’re one of the Legion’s Reaper units, right? What am I saying? Look at you! You’re huge and furry, of course you're a Reaper.”
Huge? Furry? My battle form had receded, and I was firmly encased in my suit. I glanced down at my body just to be sure. “Reaper Cade Lonza of the Legion Reaper units. I’ve been assigned to take you to Legion command.”
At this point, my targets would attempt to disarm or disable me. Many have either begged or bartered with me to let them go. This was the first time that any of my targets clung to me like I was their lifeline.
“Great! Take me! But first, you gotta help me get control of my ship. They have the rest of my crew. They were…doing things to them. The women!” Silar looked around frantic, unperturbed by his own state of undress. More clear goo dropped from his body in disturbing clumps before melting into liquid. He seemed to be getting his vision into focus. “Where the hell are we?”
“I was hoping you would know.” I indicated the entrance. “There are cargo holds all along this corridor.”
“Okay, okay, that sounds like we’re in one of the sub-levels.” Silar Praxis muttered things to himself as he paced back and forth. He seemed to dismiss my presence.
“I need to look for the medical bay. The more I look for it, I end up walking in a circle. This ship is full of twists and turns, and I don’t have any time to waste.”
“That’s part of her beauty. Okay, first, we need to wake these guys up.” Silar paused and looked down at his body as if he just realized that he was naked. “Scratch that. First I need a suit.” He went to a seamless wall that parted for him, revealing a small tool closet with a couple of spare suits. He grabbed one and jerked his limbs into it. “Okay, now the rest of the crew.”
The tenuous grasp on my control was slipping. I slammed him up against the wall, my body expanding in my suit. “I need you to find my mate. Medical bay. Now.”
“Medical bay? She’s safer than we are for now. Trust me. You need to help me if we’re to help her.”
Claws tore into Silar’s suit as my hands morphed. I could feel my body grow, suit straining to keep me from changing into my full battle form. “This is not a negotiation.”
“No, you don’t understand. They have a good reason to keep her alive. Your mate is fine for now.”
Solana’s cold fear lingered in my blood, the taste of it bitter on my tongue. “You don’t know that. You don’t feel her fear.”
“Well imagine that times a hundred since my crew have felt that for longer. I also have females under my charge, my mechanic, doctor, and an enforcer, and all three of them are being fucked over for gods knows what purpose.”
His words hammered into me like a finely-honed weapon. My hands clenched into fists, my body readying itself to defend. Females were to be protected and honored. A female in distress would enrage any warrior of worth. “Where are they?” I hardly recognized my voice.
“If you want to save your mate, you have to be smart. If we get ourselves captured again, or get ourselves killed, that’s it. They’re done. We need reinforcements. That’s the only way we can get a jump on their tech. We only have one shot or else they’ll get the jump on us a
gain. All of us. You. Your mate. My crew. Everyone. When will the rest of your squad get here?”
A few deep breaths slowed my change. The beast that raged inside of me settled so I could think. Cooler heads will prevail. My death wouldn’t bring honor to my family. Wouldn’t protect my mate. “They are in slipstream. An hour away, maybe less. Definitely gaining.”
“Good. That won’t help us in our immediate next steps, but if we time it right, we can get those fuckers off the ship. Right, I just need to defrost a few of these people, and it will give us a fighting chance against their tech.”
The memory of Solana, frozen in terror, and my complete inability to help her. The smuggler had a point. I was completely helpless against their weapons. “That immobilizing field?”
“Among other things. Those guys? They call themselves Kridrin. They’re nothing I’ve ever seen before. And I’ve seen a lot of scum in the uncharted sectors. A lot.”
Did he? Was that the reason the Legion command wanted Silar Praxis? “How do I know you won’t kill me as soon as they’re thawed out?”
“Trust me I ain’t got any beef with you. Besides, only an idiot would get between a Rodinian and his mate.”
I leaned into him, baring my teeth. “I don’t know you. Maybe you are an idiot?”
Despite being in a neck hold, Silar managed a laugh. “I may not be book smarts, but I don’t need to be borrowing trouble. They fucked with my crew. They fucked with you. I say, an enemy of an enemy is my friend.”
I assessed him, the fire in his eyes and the rage he held back behind his smiling face. Silar Praxis was no ordinary two-bit smuggler. Beneath his facade, he was a warrior and my instincts told me that I could trust him—at least when it came to rescuing his crew.
Helping him would get me to Solana quicker, and it wouldn’t hurt to have extra eyes against an unknown enemy. “Fine. Your crew. Then, Solana.”
6 CADE
The ship’s enforcer had woken up swinging and aimed a growl at me in greeting when we freed him from his pod. I took it in stride. If I woke in a pool of refrigerated goo, I’d wake in a fury, too.
The engineer, on the other hand, had greeted me with a genuine smile and a handshake. “Name’s Phary Cooper. But everyone just calls me Coop. Ship’s engineer. And our Head of Security is Raymy Brice”
I took in the earnest man with pale skin that had a dust of reddish-brown freckles the same shade as his hair. “Reaper Cade Lonza.”
Coop waited to see if I would say anymore and when I didn’t, pink crept along his neck and ears. “Oh. Well, nice to meet you, Reaper.”
“You may stop shaking my hand,” I suggested, “And you might want this.” I handed him a suit, and he looked at it for a full second before realizing that he had been standing entirely naked save for the quickly evaporating goo. He struggled into it while I faced Silar. “Was this the crew you mentioned?”
“The ones who we needed to help us, yes.”
“I was expecting…soldiers. Warriors?”
Silar Praxis managed to find boots and a utility belt that he strapped around his hips. “What kind of an outfit do you think I run? I don’t have the payroll for that!”
“You supply prime black-market goods to the Sovereign Worlds and you’re telling me you don’t have payroll for a few guards?”
Raymy Brice barked a sound that could have been laughter. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was an argument they have had before.
Silar stabbed a finger toward his Head of Security. “Hey, I don’t criticize how you run security.” The captain stormed past me toward the entrance to sneak a look down the corridor.
I added imprints of my assessments of him and his crew onto the retinal file that I had for Silar’s smuggling op. He had combat training and served in the pre-Concord wars for two tours. He had fought against the accords that unified the Sovereign Worlds a generation before the Legion entered the inner spiral of the galaxy.
Silar Praxis should be raking in credits and favors, flying in top tier ships. Should be, but clearly wasn’t. Interesting.
When the other two were as similarly dressed as their captain, they at least resembled capable foot soldiers. The engineer took stock of the pods then addressed Silar. “Where are the women? Did you hear any more about Raina?”
Silar clapped a hand on Coop’s shoulder. “No. We’re going to find out.”
The man had visibly deflated but pressed his lips in a line.
Pressure wrapped around my ribs and squeezed. “Are we ready to go now?”
Raymy Brice sidled up to take up the rear. “We takin’ orders from the Legion, Captain?”
Silar’s face contorted for a brief moment before his irreverent smile fixed back in place. “When it comes to taking back our ship? We do what’s necessary, and there ain’t no shame in that.”
Raymy Brice stepped up to me, sizing me. He was a brawler, not a soldier. Yet, I had the feeling that even though he knew he’d lose, he’d still take me on. His next words surprised me. “I’ll swear whatever oath you want, so long as our people are safe.”
It was my turn to show a mirthless smile. “I don’t recruit for the Legion. I reap—Recon and Apprehension. We don’t care about pretty words. Only action.”
“He’s right, Captain,” Coop said. “We need to get a move out— “
Said captain shoved a blaster in his hand. “We need to load up our weapons,” Silar said. “Then, we need to plan. Acting all rash and in the dark is how we got into this mess in the first place.”
From the other two’s reaction, it was clear that Silar Praxis wasn’t one to think first and act second. “How did you lose control of your ship?” I asked.
“They had seemed like ordinary passengers. Paying passengers, you get it. I wasn’t being picky.” Silar Praxis shook his head. “We told them we were making a quick pit stop, and then we’d be on our way.”
“Pit stop being denuding resources from an off-limits world?” I asked.
“Gimme a break, okay? It was routine. It should have been easy in, easy out. Like we’d done a million times.” Silar Praxis snapped his fingers and gestured at Raymy Brice. “Must have been right before they grabbed us at the mess hall.” As if memories were slowly coming through, he kept talking. “Yeah, it’s coming back to me now. We’d been trying to figure out what to have for dinner.” His voice grew quiet. “They did stuff, man. Crazy stuff.”
Coop spoke in a quiet voice. “They’ve got some mind control, too. You know they’re doing it, but can’t do anything about it.”
Fury tempered the sorrow that filled my heart for my mate. The helplessness she must have felt. “What did they make you do?”
The engineer flushed. “They needed experiments. They made me…I gave them the passengers first. And then, they made me lure my wife over to them. Raina. Then the other women.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Silar said. “We were all under that control. Which is why we need to coordinate. We need to be able to grab all of them at the same time so that they won’t have a chance to regroup and use their tech against us.”
I warred with myself to keep from prying the dribble of information slowly trickling from their brains. They were as much a victim as Solana was, but my instincts—my beast—didn’t want to hear logic. All it knew was somehow this crew brought danger to my mate and for that reason alone, I wanted to skin them while they screamed and fly their hides like merry flags on the ship’s hull. “Well coordinate then.”
The three of them shared a look, something that seemed they would need to discuss privately. I fought down my impatience even more. “Speak your piece, and do so quickly.” I stalked over to the entrance and peeked down the corridor to make sure it was still clear.
Unity between mates was supposed to help with bonding so that the female would be more apt to choose to bond with the one fate presented to her. She still had the power to refuse the bond. She’d be able to move on with her life while I would slowl
y devolve into a ravening beast with no purpose. I’d be useless for anything other than a berserker on the front lines of battle.
I needed Solana to bond with me. I didn’t want this delay to be a reason she didn’t choose me. What if she thinks I wasn’t responsive enough? Or, she thinks that I wasn’t enough to protect her?
I shook those doubts from my mind. Her soul reached for me. She sought me out for comfort when she was still able to. She awakened my soul.
I glanced over to where Silar and his two men bickered. Their argument was barely-controlled seething, more significant gestures and glances than words. It was almost childish.
Raymy Brice surprised them when his frustration bubbled over. “I can’t believe I’m the one siding with the fuzzball. No offense,” he casually called over his shoulder.
I assumed the “fuzz” reference was for me. “None taken.”
When the other two would have stopped him, Raymy Brice held up his hand. “Those guys, those men in black, they had hired us before. Repeat clients, that sort of thing. We like repeat clients.” His mouth twisted on the word as if it tasted vile. “No need to vouch like you do for new business.”
Silar Praxis shouted his enforcer down. “I am the captain here. I’ll tell it.” The man squared off in front of me as if waiting for a challenge. “Anyway, the creeps asked for something I didn’t want to get involved in. Next thing you know, brain science.” He gestured to his head to indicate that he’d been taken advantage of.
“What did they ask?”
“They usually want some random plant or rock for their precious collections. This time they wanted a harvest from Earth. It took us a while to understand that they didn’t mean a harvest of plants. They wanted humans. Females, preferably. I do a lot of things to piss off the powers that be, any of the powers that be, the Concord, the Legion, whoever I don’t care. But I’m not a slaver. I don’t trade in flesh. The little buggers respected our answer and asked for their usual as long as they’d accompanied us. So here we are.”